Stairway to Heaven (AKA A Matter of Life and Death)
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Written by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
1946/UK
The Archers
First viewing/The Collector’s Choice DVD
#202 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Conductor 71: One is starved for Technicolor up there.[/box]

Parts of this fantasy were just magical. I was almost embarrassed for the film in other parts.   I need to give this one another chance since I have found that Powell and Pressburger films tend to grow on me.

RAF bomber pilot Peter Carter is bringing his battered plane back to England in a thick fog.  All of the crew has bailed out or died save him.  He is preparing to jump without a parachute from the burning hulk.  During his last minutes on board he talks to June (Kim Hunter), an American air traffic controller.  They immediately bond and fall in love.

After bailing out, Peter finds himself inexplicably alive on a beach.  He meets up with the grief-stricken June who is bicycling home from work.    They begin their romance. Meanwhile, the other world has noticed that it is one soul short.  Conductor 71 (Marius Goering) made a mistake in the fog.  The wry victim of the French Revolution is sent to convince Peter to do his duty and die.

Peter refuses, saying that he has superior rights to those of heaven since he fell in love due to their error.  Peter’s strange behavior causes June to contact her friend Dr. Reeves (Roger Livesey), a neuroscientist.  Dr. Reeves believes Peter to be suffering from a brain injury causing visual and auditory hallucinations.  He equally believes that to Peter these hallucinations are real and it is vital that Peter win in his dispute with heaven.  The story culminates in Peter having brain surgery while simultaneously arguing in his case in the heavenly court.  With Raymond Massey as heavenly Prosecutor and Kathleen Byron as an angel.

This is one instance in which my practice of listening to the commentary before watching the film may have really let me down.  The commentator goes into great detail about how this film was intended to mend fences between Britain and America, where people were questioning the value of an alliance with a holder of colonies, after the war.  The union of Peter and June symbolizes this. This is not made overt in the film but knowing this may have made the trial scene more painful that necessary.

On the other hand, this has some really special effects and innovative cinematography, particularly in the transitions between the Technicolor of earth and the black-and-white of heaven, and some beautiful images and good acting.  This was Jack Cardiff’s (Black Narcissus) debut as a Director of Photography.

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